{"id":1236,"date":"2015-10-13T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithgod\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2015-10-12T14:05:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T22:05:25","slug":"how-to-pray-i-wish-i-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wrestlingwithgod\/2015\/10\/how-to-pray-i-wish-i-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pray? I Wish I Knew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Portrait of Barbara Brown Taylor, author of \"An Altar on the World.\" <\/a>
Barbara Brown Taylor, author of \u201cAn Altar in the World.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I don\u2019t know how to pray. Haven\u2019t a clue. Apparently, I\u2019m not alone.<\/p>\n

Barbara Brown Taylor \u2014 professor, author, theologian, Episcopal priest\u00a0and a woman TIME magazine once designated one of the world\u2019s most influential people \u2014\u00a0seems to be as flummoxed by the prayer question as I am.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am a failure at prayer,\u201d she confessed\u00a0in her\u00a0book,\u00a0An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith<\/em>. \u201cTo say I love God but I do not pray much is like saying I love life but I do not breathe much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s a woman after my own heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

I belong to a group that meets once\u00a0a month on Mondays. Some people might describe it a prayer group. But I don\u2019t \u2013 because I, for one, am not that good at praying.\u00a0Our group is\u00a0good at talking, and we\u2019re really good at listening to each other. And, somehow or other, God\u00a0seems to be\u00a0there when we meet on our Mondays for a simple meal and talk. Prayer \u2014 how to do it, why<\/em> do it \u2014\u00a0is a topic we bump up against from time to time.<\/p>\n

Like me,\u00a0Taylor\u00a0expresses\u00a0consternation at trying to formulate\u00a0a clear theology and practice of prayer. The\u00a0author of the acclaimed\u00a0Leaving Church,\u00a0<\/em>she waits until the second to last chapter of\u00a0\u00a0An Altar in the World<\/em>\u00a0 to finally bring up the subject of prayer. When she does, it is with trepidation. \u201cI would rather show someone my checkbook stubs than talk about my prayer life,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have shelves full of prayer books and books on prayer. I have file drawers full of notes from courses I have taught and taken on prayer. I have meditation benches I have used twice, prayer mantras I have intoned for as long as a week, notebooks with column after column of the names of people in need of prayer (is writing them down enough?) I have a bowed psaltery\u2013a biblical string instrument mentioned in the book of Psalms\u2013that dates from the year I thought I might be able to sing prayers easier than I could say them. I have invested a small fortune in icons, candles, monastic incense, coals, and incense burners.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Every once in a while, prayer overtakes Taylor and she is flooded with a transcendent\u00a0presence. But most of the time, she finds a more immediate sense of God in what she calls \u201cenlarged awareness\u201d \u2013 in\u00a0paying attention<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 as she bites into a homegrown tomato, or sets the table for guests with her best dishes and silverware, or\u00a0 pauses to notice the moon, round and full \u201clike the wide iris of God\u2019s own eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Altar in the World<\/em>\u00a0limns a spirituality of the everyday, of finding Holy in the feeding of the cats and the dogs, the family and the friends. It suggests that, instead of waiting for God to answer our prayers, we\u00a0wake up<\/em>\u00a0to the fact that our lives are the very answer to the question we ask. The sacred is right there in plain sight and always has been.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s what happens to me when my Monday night group meets to eat, talk and\u00a0be present\u00a0\u00a0for God.\u00a0I listen to the others speak.\u00a0I\u00a0offer up\u00a0my own private stories \u2014 and I\u00a0feel them coming back to me, intensified, enlarged and sanctified.<\/p>\n

An earlier version of this post appeared on BarbaraFalconerNewhall.com<\/a>, where Barbara writes about her rocky spiritual journey \u2014 and the view from the second half of life. More thoughts on prayer at \u201cWant to See Your Creator? Go Look at a Rock.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Also \u201cSimone Weil on Prayer: First, Pay Attention.\u201d<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Barbara is the author of \u201cWrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith,\u201d<\/a> from Patheos Press.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know how to pray. Haven\u2019t a clue. Apparently, I\u2019m not alone. Barbara Brown Taylor \u2014 professor, author, theologian, Episcopal priest\u00a0and a woman TIME magazine once designated one of the world\u2019s most influential people \u2014\u00a0seems to be as flummoxed by the prayer question as I am. \u201cI am a failure at prayer,\u201d she confessed\u00a0in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2144,"featured_media":1239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[362,352,117,48,354,161,194,355,353],"class_list":["post-1236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-an-altar-in-the-world","tag-barbara-brown-taylor","tag-books","tag-conversation","tag-home-churches","tag-how-to-pray","tag-prayer","tag-sharing-stories","tag-small-groups"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Pray? 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